In Jake Johnson’s Common Dreams piece Disturbing Milestone (Common Dreams), he details: The top 12 American billionaires now own more than $1 trillion in wealth. That’s a lot of economic and political power in the hands of just 12 people. Their combined wealth soared by $283 billion due to the coronavirus spread. While the top 12 are profiting, tens of millions of Americans are either unemployed or close to unemployed. While the top 12 likely obeyed US laws, it’s worth asking the question: ...

Key characteristics of the affine wealth model: The affine wealth model is agent-based i.e. each person or corporation is an agent. Wealth distribution arises from pairwise agent transactions e.g. agent A has a transaction with agent B. Wealth moves when an agent makes a mistake. The affine wealth model matches empirical data on US wealth distribution. chi stabilizes the wealth distribution and avoids oligarchy. zeta results in partial oligarchy. kappa shifts the wealth distribution downward to model debt. See also Is inequality inevitable?

Is Inequality Inevitable? (Scientific American) makes a compelling argument about wealth that I’ve always suspected but lacked support. The key ideas I took away from Bruce Boghosian’s article are: The affine wealth model reveals the tendency towards wealth concentration or extreme inequality even if the outcome of a transaction is chosen randomly. If the transaction outcome is random, then luck plays a bigger role in amassing wealth than most people think. Wealth tends to flow upward. As a result, the free market is essentially a casino you can never leave. Fortunately, redistribution sets a limit on inequality, but it’s not necessarily a tax (see chi, zeta and kappa parameters of the affine wealth model). See also StackBacks automated budget system Neutralizing social Darwinism Who rules America? Better schools won’t fix America

To benefit from reading, make something out of what you read. Making something out of what you read could be something as simple as summarizing in your own words or something a bit more involved like a blog post or PowerPoint slides. Teaching someone is probably the ultimate form of actively making something out of what you read. The underlying principle remains the same: Break the collector’s fallacy. Unless you’re reading for pleasure, passively collecting information in your mind or in your notes is the exact opposite of making something out of what you read. ...

When you reinterpret ideas… You should be opinionated about what matters most. You should use them to share and collaborate with others. You should use them to get on the radar of readers, moderators and the original authors. You should see your reinterpretation as bridges for others to access these new ideas. See also Cognitive reappraisal techniques The ultimate guide to summarizing books Why blog?

The Ultimate Guide to Summarizing Books inspired my elaboration experiment. Tiago Forte’s most powerful ideas that resonated with me are: Read with the intent of making something out of what you read. Summarize what you read, but reinterpret the ideas through your own lens. Look for content that is on the fringe of topics you care about.

How to Test Every American for COVID-19, Every Day (The Atlantic) is one of the most eye-opening articles I’ve read about testing in some time. The main ideas I got from it are: US isn’t delivering PCR results faster than the virus. Silent spreaders are the virus’s secret power. White House encouraged test competition, so nothing happened. We must out-volume the virus with a massive number of tests. PCR tests don’t measure contagiousness, so they don’t help stop virus. PCR tests are positive even when you’re not contagious. Squeeze more tests from PCR testing via pooling. Antigen tests are inferior around day 1-3 of an infection, but are way better at end of infection. Paper antigen tests are COVID-19 contagiousness tests. Paper antigen tests are fast but much less sensitive than PCR tests. FDA says antigen tests must have 80% sensitivity compared to PCR tests. See also Overlooked variable is key to pandemic

In How To Take Smart Notes, Sönke Ahrens encourages the reader to elaborate by thinking, writing and then connecting. So why not use a blog for the same purpose? :) The blog becomes one possible path for the output of elaboration. It also expands how information is connected to other information. The first step is to think enough about something so we’re able to write about it. The second step is to think about what it means for other contexts as well… how does it relate? ...